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My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

Obviously not my son. But rather the writer of this article's son.

I have zero tolerance for drunk and or obnoxious fans. I mean zero tolerance. (makes me sick to my stomach when I see a father sitting with his younger son or daughter or even a young teenager and the father is berating the ref or opposing player, and sure enough the kid starts berating the ref. I want to turn around and berate the father.

But is this mother overreacting? I don't know. Although I have never sat above the second row of the balcony, I hardly think, "Pacers games can turn into bacchanalias, suggesting they’re not places for kids". As it states oin the article. I consider pacers games to be very kid friendly overall. Hope he goes to another game soon and becomes even a bigger fan.

If you’re a sports fan, you’d enjoy talking to my seven-year-old son. For the past year, he’s insisted each morning on reading The Star’s sports section (proving the paper can appeal to younger readers). Wherever we go, he chats with fans about their favorite team’s numbers, stats and schedules.

Since he’s caught the sports bug, we’ve attended our share of Indiana Fever and Indianapolis Indians games, where he sits rapt. So when we saw that his school was hosting a Spirit Night at the Pacers game, we knew there’d be no way around it.

Friday night found us near the rafters of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, my son cheering and calling the players by their first names. He absentmindedly downed a hot dog and chips and did not even bother to badger me for the rainbow ice treat that his friend next to him scored.

Shortly before halftime came to a close, I had turned to my right to tend to my fidgeting younger son when I heard a commotion. I whipped my head around to my older son’s side. But instead of seeing my son, there was a large man draped over the seats.

It took a good five seconds of heart-pounding fear to realize my son was underneath the bulk.

“HEY! YOU’RE ON MY SON,” I screeched.

A giggle erupted from the mass as the bozo slowly unpeeled himself. My son looked up, blood pouring from his mouth. At least, my first thought was, he’s conscious.

“My toooooth, my tooooth,” he screamed.

Now I will confess that my child can be prone to exaggeration when it comes to injury. So at first, I told myself, he just bit his lip, and it’s bleeding a little. Then my husband and I got a closer look.

Blood was pouring from his mouth and he was clutching his face moaning. Drama king or no, this was serious.

Rocking back and forth, wailing, my son was too terrified to let us get a good look at his mouth. By some bizarre stroke of fortune, we were sitting next to a friend and her mother who is a dental student.

“Does he have any permanent teeth?” she asked, urging the people in front of us to look for the tooth in case it was an adult tooth.

Meanwhile, the man who had tumbled down stood awkwardly at the end of the row with his buddy, staring at us.

“Gee, I’m sorry,” he started to say.

But we were not interested in his feeble apologies. We tended to our son, and by the time I looked up again, he had disappeared and security was there.

My husband took my son to the bathroom to wash out his mouth to get a better look, and an EMT provided an ice pack. By that point we ascertained it was a baby tooth that had fallen out, destined to be lost in the stands forever. Other than some serious bruising and a fat lip, my son was fine physically.

But he was jarred emotionally. “Why did that happen? Why did that happen?” he asked over and over again, as we slowly made our way to the exit, our desire for the game dampened.

Really, we had no good answer. Everyone who has heard the story immediately says, “the guy was drunk.” To be honest, checking the guy’s inebriation status was not top of our mind.

Still, it is hard to believe that a grown man would have just fallen down one row — or more likely two as there no one was sitting behind us — without some alcohol involved, especially since my son had a recollection that the bozo and a friend were wrestling just before he toppled.

At the end of the day, we know we were incredibly lucky. My son’s head, rather than his mouth and face, could have knocked into the seat, causing a concussion. The guy could have fallen on a smaller child and possibly broken bones.

Or, the guy himself might have suffered some more serious damage, had his fall not been cushioned by, well, my son.

The most frustrating thing, as my son quickly deduced, was that this all could have been avoided, had the guy and his friend used some commonsense. Nor is it the first time this season that an innocent fan has been wounded by another ticket holder.

A woman attending the Colts-Broncos game at Lucas Oil Stadium in October had to be taken to hospital by ambulance after another fan fell on her, sending her tumbling over her seat until she hit her head two rows down. The man was arrested but prosecutors decided against filing charges.

In our case, I know the guy meant no harm. He was just being goofy. But he was also dumb.

Sporting events shouldn’t be mistaken for bars. People have warned us that Pacers games can turn into bacchanalias, suggesting they’re not places for kids.

The prospect of my kids overhearing a few curses or off-color language wouldn’t deter me. Besides, this was supposed to be a school spirit night, so I figured if any night would be family friendly this would be it.

“Did you think this would happen?” my son quizzed me on the way home.
“Of course not,” I answered, realizing this was not a good lesson for all of the times I warn him and his brother that bad things will ensue if they do not desist in whatever dangerous behavior they are engaged in at the time.

When we got home, my son penned a note to the tooth fairy. “I lost lost my tooth,” he wrote (to distinguish, he explained, from a simple loss of a tooth), “when a guy fell on me at the Pacers’ game.” Dubious about the tooth fairy, my son thought that everyone was looking for his tooth at the game to give it to her, so he figured he’d tuck a note under his pillow just in case.

The tooth fairy clearly felt pretty rotten there isn’t more she can do to control random accidents at sporting events. She left $20, a largesse that he will hopefully remember as long as he remembers his first professional basketball game.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

I don't remember if it was my first Pacers game, or my 3rd, but it was pretty early on in my game experiences but I had a drunk guy behind me dump his beer all over me and my brand new Pacers starter jacket. (That dates the story a little bit) Of course, I didn't have the trauma of losing a baby tooth, but I'm sure he'll get over it, just like I got over my jacket being soaked with what I thought at the time was the nastiest smell I had ever whiffed.

I think she's over-reacting. This could easily happen as they walk down the streets. Sounds like a pretty good instance where you can teach your kid about staying in control when drinking and not being inside their own bubble when in public.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

Hadn't thought of it that way. Probably doesn't deserve to be, but I blame the idiot bozo who fell on the kid.

Just seems like an unnecessary dig at the fan experience of the Pacers because one parent who happens to work for the star had her kid lose a baby tooth.

It sucks and I wish it didn't happen but it happens at all sporting events. Her assertion that Pacers game are adult or bacchanalia (also, what an unnecessary use of a word) is just flat out wrong. The Pacers go above and beyond to make events as kid friendly as possible. Really disappointed that the Star would give this front page billing right as the team was doing well. If it was written in the sense of "How do we prevent drunks at sporting events" I'd be ok with it, but really the tone seems to be "A drunk guy fell on my kid at game and since I write for the Star I'm going to take this chance to complain about my experience at the Pacers game"

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

People have warned us that Pacers games can turn into bacchanalias, suggesting they’re not places for kids.

You gotta be kidding me. I mean seriously.........

It sucks that this happened to her young innocent kid, but it just sounds like a bad luck accident. I've been going to Pacer games for 18 years and miraculously haven't lost any vital body parts.

Again, I know she's upset about what happened to her kid, but this article is pretty over the top. She makes it sound as if taking your kid to a Pacer game is akin to walking them through a frat house.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

More I think about this article more it makes me angry.

She admits that she has no idea what lead to the guy falling. She admits that he apologized.Yet now he is a carousing bozo who ruined the Pacers game for them and declares that so many people have told her how adult Pacer games are.

Just really irresponsible journalism IMO. Did she have nothing better to write about? What would she have done for an article if a "carousing bozo" hadn't landed on her kid?

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

When did the Star turn into a blog for their employees? It sucks that her kid got his tooth busted and all, but it's not news. Same deal as John Tuohy's "harrowing journey" from Chicago to Indy during the big storm. Who cares?

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

When did the Star turn into a blog for their employees? It sucks that her kid got his tooth busted and all, but it's not news. Same deal as John Tuohy's "harrowing journey" from Chicago to Indy during the big storm. Who cares?

I really enjoyed reading John Tuohy's account of his drive from Chicago to Indy.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

The dramatic rhetoric the author uses elsewhere in this article make it hard for me to believe that blood was "pouring" from his mouth. My sister lost both of her front baby teeth in a bike accident, and while there was blood, it wasn't nearly a bloodbath on par with what this author was describing.

Not excusing this guy's actions by any means, but parents are growing increasingly protective and nuttier these days. As a 20-something with no kids, I'm irritated by EVERYTHING having to be kid friendly these days, but you don't see me writing articles in a newspaper about it. At a Pacers game I attended recently (I believe against the Clippers or Spurs, a couple years ago) some kid was screaming and banging those thundersticks right behind my wife the whole game to the point where her ears were constantly ringing. I politely asked the Dad to the tell his kid to tone it down, and judging by the Dad's reaction you would have thought I was marketing Jerry Sandusky babysitting services. Heaven forbid anyone interfere with junior's night out. Just grates me. When I was growing up I was always told to be seen and not heard and not interfere with what adults are doing. Now the needs of kids are frequently front and center. This doesn't necessarily apply to the situation above, but I'm convinced its symptomatic of it.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

When did the Star turn into a blog for their employees? It sucks that her kid got his tooth busted and all, but it's not news. Same deal as John Tuohy's "harrowing journey" from Chicago to Indy during the big storm. Who cares?

At least the storm story sort of was a piece for a voice for a lot of epople who went through tough situations in the storm. This just comes off as a chance to whine.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

She admits that she has no idea what lead to the guy falling. She admits that he apologized.Yet now he is a carousing bozo who ruined the Pacers game for them and declares that so many people have told her how adult Pacer games are.

Just really irresponsible journalism IMO. Did she have nothing better to write about? What would she have done for an article if a "carousing bozo" hadn't landed on her kid?

I tried to leave a comment, but I don't think it worked.

The editor seems to actually be reading those comments, so I wanted to make a point that I am tired of the Stars continued agenda of keeping people away from Pacer games.

Re: My sonís first Pacers game was ruined by carousing bozo

Pacers games aren't places for kids? Who the heck said that? I see plenty of kids there all the time and took my nephew to one this year.

I was 8 years old when I went to my first Pacer game. My memories from that game are of a physical altercation.....................between the players. Pacers-Kings brawl in 1995. A very memorable first game for me. The players might have roughed each other up, but I as an 8 year old remarkably escaped MSA with all of my limbs, fingers, toes, and teeth. A month later I went to my second game. Smits dumped a career high of 44 points which stood for the remainder of his career. I again escaped with all of my body parts. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.....

Articles like this are why not reading The Star anymore doesn't bother me one bit. WISH, WTHR, WRTV, and WXIN have great websites for local news, and there are plenty of blogs for Pacers/Colts news. Plus any good Pacers Star article gets posted here anyway.